Coronavirus Coverage by Sarah Fentem

The Missouri health department has acknowledged that it has used national data to estimate Missouri’s racial breakdown, rather than data based on the state's population. That information has been a source of frustration for local health officials working to ensure that vaccine distribution is equitable. State officials now plan to use 2019 U.S. Census data from Missouri but say some parts of the data remain problematic.

Workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Navy have arrived in downtown St. Louis to help vaccinate people against the coronavirus. State and local officials hope the two-month immunization event at the Dome at America’s Center will help fill the city’s “vaccination gap.” Nearly 28% of Missouri’s population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, only 19% of people in St. Louis have.

The St. Louis region will host several vaccination events the next two weeks where residents can get their first COVID-19 vaccine dose. The large-scale sites can vaccinate thousands of people a day, but infectious disease specialists say they may not accommodate many of those most at risk of becoming sick from the coronavirus — people who work retail jobs, poor people and those with chronic health issues.

In the past week, children and teens 19 and younger have made up 22% of the city’s new coronavirus cases, said Dr. Fred Echols, acting director of the St. Louis Department of Health. That’s up more than 10 percentage points from what health officials have seen throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of new coronavirus cases in the St. Louis region is rising after weeks of stable numbers. Public health officials say the region is now in a race to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine before the virus becomes more widespread.

Hundreds of volunteers are vital to pulling off a public health effort almost unprecedented in scale: vaccinating the state’s 6 million residents against a virus that has killed more than 9,000 Missourians and brought life to a momentary halt.

The St. Louis City Department of Health is working with the city's Fire Department and the St. Louis Area Agency on Aging to vaccinate residents who can’t leave their homes because of their age or disability.

Many people who get sick with COVID-19 continue to have wide-ranging health problems months after they recover from their initial infection, researchers at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System have found. The study of more than 73,000 COVID-19 patients found that they sought care and medications more frequently than people who did not get sick.

St. Louis and St. Louis County officials plan to lift some coronavirus restrictions as early as next week. The changes will be based on updated guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said.

Restaurants and businesses in St. Louis and St. Louis County are now allowed to operate without curfews and host customers at full capacity as long as people continue to social distance and wear face masks inside.